We all love video games and watching television on our big HDTVs, but there is always a time for learning and a time for playing. At a young age, television programming and video games are detrimental to a toddler’s growing brain and can cause bad communication skills.

There is a study going on that has found that many toddlers are lacking good communication skills and could possibly spark screenings for speech problems. Some are skeptical to the severity of this problem but some researchers are saying that this problem is more common than dyslexia and autism. In addition, a tenth of all 2 year olds know nursery rhymes and, worse, know their own name. Knowing nursery rhymes and your own name is a true reflection on how good your parents are in giving you attention, which leads me to my next point.

Less and less families have quality meal time, in which they all eat dinner together and talk to each other, they spend long hours working and less time caring for their children. Seeking some form of entertainment, children often turn to video games and television that they can play and watch with older siblings. At a young age, it is critical that parents do not leave their children under the supervision of a television or the Nintendo Wii.

Tory MP, John Bercow, has this to say about the speech problem:

“If children are in a home in which they are getting insufficient stimulation, where there is not enough interaction, or where communication through the spoken word is not as common or extensive or imaginative as it might be, that is bound to have an impact. The reality is that for far too long, speech and language problems have been under-recognised.”

I remember when I was around this age, I would spend my days watching Sesame Street and other PBS shows, reading books with my parents, or drawing in my coloring book…how I miss those days. Anyway, hopefully this sheds some awareness on this problem and parents spend more time with their kids and help them learn basic skills.